I'm not a big pecan guy. My tastes run more towards pistachios and cashews, but don't let that stop you from celebrating Pecan Day!

Here's everything you need to know about pecans from the National Pecan Shellers Association. Of course, no Pecan Day celebration would be complete without a recipe for pecan pie. Here's one from Rachael Ray, one from AllRecipes, and also one from Simply Recipes.

But there's more to do with pecans. Here's a recipe for Caramel Pecan Cheesecake, and here's one for Wild Rice Cranberry Pecan Salad.

Nuts have been my "go-to" snack lately. I'm trying to stop eating stuff like chocolate and cookies and cake while still satisfying my snack food cravings, and nuts can actually be very good with you (within reason - watch the amount you eat). Now, if I could just stop eating the chocolate-covered cashews...

Today is National Nut Day. Grab a bag or can of your favorites, whether its cashews, pistachios, walnuts, or peanuts (which, as you may know, aren't a nut at all but a legume, in the bean family). Here's an easy recipe for Roasted Almonds, and here's one for Recipe Goldmine has a ton of nut recipes, including Cajun Cocktail Nuts, Glazed Pecans, Chili Walnuts, and Citrus Nuts.

I've had this particular type of fudge many times since I was a kid, but I had no idea it was called "Penuche Fudge."

According to Wikipedia, it's a New England fudge (and parts of the south) made with butter, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla, and tastes a lot like caramel. It's lighter than regular fudge.

Here's a recipe from recipezaar.com made with walnuts, and here's one from AllRecipes made with pecans.

To be completely honest, I am not usually impressed too much by nuts, even those coated in sugar and spices. I can easily make my own. So with this in mind, it was a complete surprise to me that I liked the Nutorious Nuts I sampled at the Fancy Foods Show so much.

• Oooo La La Original - classic buttery sweet combination
• Cha Cha Chipotle - savory and a little spicy, an updated bar snack
• Door County Cherry Vanilla Crunch (my favorite!)- a sweet nut mix with the addition of some dried cherries coated in the same sugar crust
• Cranberry Orange Crunch - nuts mixed with cranberries and tossed in an orangey sugar coating
• Chocolate Coconutty (updated!) - amazingly addictive, with chocolate and toasty coconut.

Deb from Smitten Kitchen says that these Pecan Squares are the most fattening thing she has ever made. I don't doubt her for a second because, although it looks like she made a fairly large batch, she also used almost 9 sticks of butter in the recipe. That's 1,017 grams, 4 1/2 cups and 72 tablespoons of butter for those of you not familiar with the notion of it in stick form. Of course, the recipe comes from Ina Garten and because she is known to use at least as butter as the lovely Paula Deen, this isn't all that surprising. Ina doesn't say how many servings this makes, but if we assume that you can cut it into 54 bars (2-in. squares), you're looking at around 17 grams of fat per bar - and more if you take Ina's suggestion to dip them in chocolate!

The squares are essentially a caramel pecan pie filling that is baked on top of a buttery shortbread base. It is baked in an unusually large pan (18 by 12 by 1-in., as opposed to the more standard home baking size of 9 by 13-in.), but that does give it the advantage of being a convenient, decadent and delicious treat to bake for a big holiday party. Just don't tell anyone the nutritional stats before serving them.

This is a pie that should have been part of our nut themed day yesterday. It is also a pie that should be a hit with math-lovers, food hackers and anyone who really likes pie. This is a fractal pecan pie.

A fractal is a recursive, self-similar geometric object that continuously reproduces into proportionally smaller shapes. This particular one is based on the Koch snowflake, which is made up of triangles. To put this all into layman's terms, these guys made a giant pecan pie that used the same amount of filling that would ordinarily be found in 21 normal-sized pecan pies. The ratio of crust to filling was the same as a standard pie, so the baking time was only a bit longer than average, despite the fact that it had to be done in a custom-built, propane-powered oven. Just make sure that you have enough volunteers to help you eat all the pie (and construct the tin and oven) before baking!

It's hard to get pumpkin muffins right because the pumpkin itself is often so moist that it makes the muffin seem heavy or overly wet. On top of that, many recipes call for oil instead of butter, which doesn't help to lighten the muffins up at all. Too often, the end product is a very unsatisfying muffin that is gummy and has minimal pumpkin flavor. These, however, are not those muffins.

The recipe is from Epicurious and they use butter, buttermilk, a bit of molasses and lots of spices to turn out a very flavorful muffin. The muffins are moist, but not wet, and have a wonderfully light texture to them. Pecans make a fantastic combination with pumpkin, so I opted to use them instead of the walnuts suggested by the original recipe. Chocolate chips, raisins or dried cranberries would also be good additions to this recipe if you're looking to try a couple of variations.

If you have to pick one snack to have available to serve to guests during the holiday season, nuts are not a bad option. Putting problems with allergies aside (which hopefully your guests will inform you of in advance), nuts are healthy, filling and subject to an almost unlimited number of variations, 50 of which can be found in Party Nuts!: 50 Recipes for Spicy, Sweet, Savory, and Simply Sensational Nuts that Will Be the Hit of Any Gathering. The book includes sweet, salty and spicy variations, after starting with a "rule book" for nuts. The "rules" are more like tips and include pointers such as buying your nuts from a reputable source that stock them fresh, as opposed to working from prepacked bags. The author also points out that nuts should be stored in the freezer to prevent the natural oils in them from turning rancid and provides ballpark toasting times, which give you an easy way to add flavor to raw nuts without much work. But with only a bit more time, you can make Hot Pepper Sesame Peanuts, Sugar and Orange Macadamia Nuts, Honey-Cardamom Almonds or Rum Glazed Spiced Pecans.

Ever wonder where all of our nuts come from, especially considering that they are easily found in just about every market you could wander into?

• Cashews are grown throughout the tropics, but most come from are India and East Africa. They are never sold in the shell because there is an extremely caustic oil between the inner and outer layers which must be burned off before they can be sold.
• Almonds originated in the Mediterranean, but California now produces 80% of the world's supply.
• Macadamia nuts are native to Australia and were brought to Hawaii about 100 years ago. Commercial production began around 1920 and most of the world's macadamias are now grown on Hawaii.
• Walnuts are the third most popular nut in the US and California produces 2/3 of the world's crop.
• Pecans are native to the Mississippi valley and are the only nut native to the US. Georgia is the largest producer of pecans.
• Hazelnuts, also known as filbert, are primarily grown in Turkey, where 75% of the world's supply comes from. Almost all the US grown hazelnuts are from Oregon's Willamette valley
• Pistachio production is the largest in Iran, which accounts for about 40% of the international crop. The US is the second largest producer, with almost 30% of the crop, 98% of which is grown in California.
• Peanuts are not really nuts, but are legumes and members of the pea family (only included here as they most often grouped with nuts). China is the largest producer, with almost 40% of the world crop. India has almost 25%and the U.S., the third largest producing country, has only 6%. Roughly 2/3 of the global peanut crops are processed into peanut oil.
• Brazil nuts are resistant to cultivation and are still primarily harvested from the wild in South America.

[sources, source]

Raw nuts make a tasty and satisfying snack. They are a little on the bland side, so it is not hard to stick with the recommended daily serving of a dozen or so nuts. Roasting and salting the nuts really increases their appeal, and you'll probably find yourself eating at least a handful or two before trying to find something to wash them down with. Adding sugar to the roasted, salted nuts makes them dangerously addictive.

Fortunately, candied nuts are also very easy to make. All you need to do is toss the nuts in some egg white and coat with a generous amount of sugar and spices. For this recipe, I used cinnamon and allspice, which combine with the flavor of the pecan to produce a result that tastes exactly of fall and the holiday season. In fact, a batch of these nuts would make a wonderful gift for family or friends, though you'll want to make two so you can keep some for yourself.

Read on for the recipe:

This is good news for anyone who likes pecans, since the nuts are often overlooked in favor of almonds and other nuts that are slightly lower in fat, although the majority of the fat in pecans is unsaturated.

If you want to get a few more pecans into your diet, try adding them to salads or eating a handful as a snack. For a slightly less healthy - but possibly more delicious - way to eat a few more pecans, try:

• Pecan Balls
• Butter Pecan Cookies
• Maple Pecan Tarts
• Mexican Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars
• Maple Pecan Oatmeal Cookies